Philips Airfryer vs Tefal Actifry vs Ninja Foodi - which one should you buy?

Since Tefal unveiled the first air fryer in 2010, many other brands have entered the fray thanks to high demand from buyers looking for low-oil, countertop cooking. 

Every year, we test air fryers from all the major brands, including Ninja, Philips and Tefal. We also test products from brands such as DeLonghi, Morphy Richards and Russell Hobbs. We rigorously test each fryer, looking for the ones that are easy to use and which make tasty air-fried food.

Head to our list of Best Buy air fryers to see which one came top in our tests.

Ninja vs Philips vs Tefal – features compared

Tefal was the first brand to launch a low-fat fryer – the ActiFry – around 10 years ago, closely followed by Philips with its Airfryer. More recently, Ninja has tried to get a slice of the pie, too.

Ninja Foodi

• Ninja sells the Ninja AF100UK at just under £100 as its basic offering, but recently it's released the Ninja Foodi Dual Zone (£179) and Ninja Foodi MAX (£249).
• Premium Ninja air fryers come with extra bells and whistles. The Foodi Dual Zone has two chambers that can cook independently of one another, and the Foodi MAX functions like a grill, with a probe that monitors food temperature for optimal timings.
• The Ninja Foodi Multi-Cooker can grill, slow cook, bake, roast, steam, sauté and air-fry your food - it even works as an electric pressure cooker. 
• Ninja air fryers don't have viewing windows. If you're a keen watcher, you'll be pausing it often to check on your food. 
• Ninja products come with a 12-month warranty, which is less than Tefal and Philips air fryers.

Our Ninja Foodi air fryer reviews will let you know how they performed in our test lab.

Tefal ActiFry

• Tefal ActiFry models cost from £80 to just under £230. The Easy Fry range is cheaper, while the ActiFry range is more expensive. 
• A higher price will get you a larger cooking capacity – up to 1.7kg with the Tefal ActiFry Genius XL – and advanced features, such as the extra cooking layer of the Tefal ActiFry Genius XL 2in1.
• Easy Fry models are opaque, but ActiFry models have a viewing window at the top for you to see your food browning.
• Tefal offers a two-year guarantee for new purchases. 

Read our Tefal air fryer reviews to find a great model from the original brand.

Philips Airfryer

• Philips has fewer models and prices are higher, starting at around £160 for the Philips D9260/91 and going up to £300 for models in the Philips Avance Collection, including the Philips Avance Collection Airfryer XXL HD9650/99.
• Being more traditional in design, Philips air fryers don't have multiple partitions or viewing windows.
• Philips offers a two-year warranty, which is in line with Tefal and superior to Ninja. 

See our Philips air fryer reviews to find out if the first-ever air fryer brand still has it. 

Which brand is best?

In the table below, we've brought together all our expert knowledge to give you the verdict on which brand is best, including:

• How well each brand's air fryers performed on average in our tough tests
• What each brand's highest and lowest-scoring air fryers earned in our test lab
• How much each brand's highest-capacity air fryer is capable of cooking in kilograms
• Our overall verdict.

Only logged-in Which? members can see our verdicts in the table below. If you’re not yet a member, join Which? to get instant access.

Air fryer brands rated

Table notes Data collected from models online in July 2021.

Table last updated August 2021.